K-P lowers growth prospects amid revenue decline

Finance Dept releases Budget Strategy Paper

PESHAWAR: The provincial government has recently lowered the growth prospects into negative growth territory as it anticipated decline in government’s revenues.

This was disclosed in the Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa (K-P) Finance Department’s Annual Budget Strategy Paper (BSP) FY 2020-21. The BSP was prepared with the assistance of DFID-funded Sub-National Governance Programme.

The budget paper read that budget performance of the K-P government for the year 2019-20 in terms of revenue collections, development spend and economic growth was progressing as a year of economic growth, however, in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic, the revenue targets could not be achieved.

It said that the shortfall in federal transfer to provinces will further be substantiated by the decrease in the provincial own sourced revenue as well as high emergency spending would further squeeze the fiscal space for public investment in the provinces.

The BSP includes the socioeconomic outlook of K-P, budget performance for FY 2019-20, Covid-19 impact and government’s strategy including the adverse impact of the pandemic on the economy, revenue shortfall and comprehensive plan of emergency spending on the coronavirus and budget strategy for FY 2020-21 - both for settled and newly merged areas.

Published in The Express Tribune, June 17^th, 2020.